Machine Elves
by Demonic Atamari
Summary: The fairheaded fighter feeds my eyes flowers to ward off my fears. Camomile and dandelions of morning sun's gaze.


**The Machine Elves (major arcana mini cyber myth)**

**intr0**

The fair-headed fighter feeds my eyes flowers to ward off my fears. Camomile and dandelions of morning sun's gaze.

**one**

My head felt like it had a metal skin round it, and a vague feeling of sickness was sparking to my fingertips. Shadows of light were dancing around me, making me even dizzier. Through the shifting shapes I could see the other two, phased out, not far away.

"Where are we?" My voice sounded little and tinny and strange, but I got their attention.

"I dunno man - must have hit a glitsch."

Silence as he spun round on his belly, propped his head up and slowly looked around.

"Dazing graphics ... "

I was at once both dismayed and amazed. This was way beyond the effects that we'd been working on on the surf program. I caught my focus and looked around. No drag, absolutely no drag, and the colours - deep yellowy greens - I thought I was going to drown.

"Hey look - a spider - realer than real. Get this you guys - this is light years ahead of us."

We crept close to the source of Fang's amazement. Its eyes were orbing out at us - the detail was portentous. And, more wayward yet, it looked like it was moving with some kind of purpose, on the most beautiful legs I'd ever seen. Such strength, such - grace.

"Wo!"

A low whistle went round. We were deeply humbled, stretched out there on our bellies.

**two**

It had been, to start off with, a day like any other. Waking up in the dusty sun-streaked attic. Sitting there for a while drinking thick black coffee and smoking, gazing out over the filthy city from our crow's nest spot.

We'd stretched slowly into the day, ribbing Fang about some girl at the Hole the night before, talk soon moving to the surf program we lived and breathed.

Getting the drift right at Fistral Bay was becoming a chore. Daisy wanted that many what she called "seasonal shifts", meaning we'd have to fine-tune the basic program so much it'd be a headache.

The kids that used the VR machine at the Hole had been moaning on that sometimes they'd be out there for ages waiting for a rip-roaring wave, and their turn would be gone before they'd really had a chance to ride. The philosophy of it passed them by. Which was fair enough, far as we could see.

So we'd been working on the most amazing tubes, like you could guarantee one every third wave, and sweep along it for as long as you held a pretty hard line. We were coding it in secret as a surprise for Daisy, to remind her what it was really all about.

The kids wanted the sure thrill that tubes like ours deliver, and we were going to give it them to them.

**three**

I could feel for Daisy though. She'd been a part of the scene when they were coming down hard on the surfers, when the sea started getting really bad. She'd never talked about it, but we'd heard about it. It wasn't any different from when they were getting heavy on everyone, but she'd lived it, and it was different for her.

It was the days when you could still just about surf in the sea if you skinned yourself up enough. Course that's all we've ever known, with the VR suits, but the kids back then had started out in suits just to keep themselves warm. The sea'd wash over them, get in their hair, their eyes, their ears. Sounds pretty cold to me, but what do I know? Ecstacy can come in some way strange shapes.

Anyway, surfers started getting sick. They went to the authorities about the stuff that was being pumped into the sea, but it just got worse. It was about this time that they had to start wearing hoods and gloves to protect them from the waste, but it still got to them, and they started doing their own investigation. I guess they thought if they could expose the bad boys someone would have to listen. They really thought someone would care.

So they did their research, got their proof and took it to the authorities. Then they disappeared. Just like that. Daisy was the only one to get out. And she'd holed up here, starting up the program - the only way that anyone could surf the Cornish coast now - and working on it like there was no tomorrow.

**four**

We were just street kids, had met up in the city after we'd run away, got thrown out, the usual thing. We'd stuck together, the three of us, and lived our own little adventures, drifting about. It was enough for us, living the streets in our little pack, looking out for each other.

All that changed when we were moved on from yet another den. It was cold and wet and windy I remember, and we were looking for new digs. We were out the west side, thinking a change of space might bring a change of luck.

We stumbled on a ramshackle looking place that seemed empty. It didn't stand out much amongst all the other ramshackle looking places, except that the door had a window of coloured glass, deep blues and golds and blacks, a figure standing there made up of them. To me it was like seeing treasure shining out of a sunken shipwreck, this glass window, an Abyssinian warrior, tall with pride. I didn't know what an Abyssinian was, and nor did the others, but we all agreed, it was definitely an Abyssinian warrior, a Saracen, staring out at us with a scimitar in his hand, daring us to go inside.

It was there we ran into Daisy, a crazy looking woman hived up on the third floor. We must have looked pretty wretched, and she brewed us coffee and gave us smokes. We were totally awed by the wild looking equipment everywhere, and her kindness, and thought we'd found heaven.

She took us under her wing and told us all about the surf program, and that she could use our help. We were hooked.

**five**

The program at that time was strictly solo play only. Daisy had us in one at a time, and we stripped down and wriggled into the weird suit with wires everywhere, all cocooned up. I'd heard of surfing of course, and she'd given us a few pointers - how to paddle out there on our bellies, face out to sea. Catching a wave sounded pretty easy, and I was set.

Then she flicked the switch and there I was in this amazing place. I could feel the sea oozing under my belly on the board, moving me up and down with the swell, and man I swear it was all I could do not to lose it right there. Maybe I even did, I don't know. I'd never felt so alive, my nerves dancing in this strange world of blue swaying vastness.

I finally got it together enough to paddle out through the waves, out to sea, utterly lost in this glimmering electronic world. All I knew was I had died of joy.

Fang and Danny went out after me, and their eyes were shining something fine. We were made up. We had started to happen.

We learned quick what Daisy taught us - how to build up the program, what to look for when we went in, all the building and fine-tuning. We figured we were soon masters, and Daisy seemed happy enough.

We got a couple more suits and boards rigged up and started riding out together, our graphic bodies looking like funny little blurred pink embryonic surfing creatures. Later we talked her putting a suit and board in the Hole's VR room, so that the kids down there could take turns on the waves.

And so it was that our little world took shape, and we were walking tall in it. And so it rolled along, right up to racing the tubes that day.

**six**

We'd gotten into other programs before, hacked in and suited up to see what other programmers were up to. There was nothing to touch the surf program though, and our rogue travels were just for fun, to freak people out on their own turf. We figured we were the prime machine elves and were up for anything. I suppose we'd be a little posse of machine elf vigilantes, making sure there was enough courage scattered about. Making those places a little less virtual and a little more real. And it was always good to see Daisy laugh about our adventures afterwards.

Getting back to that day though, this was something as different again. We'd been working some on the drift, and thought to reward ourselves with a little tubing, to keep the day going along.

The latest craze was to race the tubes. It's pretty hairy getting up on the rise and squeezing past the guy in front, but as a trip it stands alone, loaded.

We were all still up and flying along something rare. Coming up the inside you cut into the arching wave, and just shoot on by at the craziest angle. We'd written a few impossible loops into the program, and these were perfect for making your move.

I remember I was pushing out ahead, Fang breathing hard and looking to chop up and through. The tubes we'd made random, and with the monster loops there was lots to look out for.

It was then it happened. A strange black shape ahead of us, wobbling about, got bigger and bigger, and this strange rushing, sucking sound pulled us in, and everything went black.

**seven**

So there we were, spat out into a world so beautiful we'd be mesmerised if we let ourselves.

On a strange impulse I thought I'd take my hood off and check we were still in the lab. A crazy thought - where else could we be?

So there my hands shot to my head before my thought had even thunk itself, and it was no lie that I felt the shock run right through my body. There was no hood. I checked my hands. No gloves.

"Man, this spider's really starting to freak me out." Fang's panic echoed my own.

"There's something preternatural about it. It's sizing me up, man."

I looked down at myself, then quickly at the others.

"Look at us - what are we wearing?"

Fang's face when he saw his threads, he looked more horrified than if the spider had bared venom-dripping teeth at him. Danny and I were in fits. He was rigged up in a jester's outfit, purple and yellow velvet. He jumped up faster than a streak of lightning across the sky, and little bells on his slippers rang out.

"Oh no, man." His face fell even further.

Danny was wrapped up in leathers and cloths, and actually looked quite cool. There was something strange about him though.

"How's life then, mister fuzz-face, sir?"

Danny reached up and stroked a new-found and rather fiendishly righteous goatee.

"Wo! Respect is rising!"

Like Danny, I'd been issued woven strides and leather boot-like things. My hair fell down on bare shoulders.

**eight**

I scanned around. A world was slowly forming out of the shifting green. Coming into focus, showing us itself. Making itself known.

All around us on all sides trees were stepping forward out of the green shadows. Shaking their branches down and stepping out. We were in the middle of a forest.

There had been a forest I'd come through on my way down from the north. It had felt strange, creeping through the frozen trees. They just stood there, like prisoners captured from another world, quite still in a huge waiting room of time, as the big machines got closer and closer. Condemned men who would die ten thousand times before the machines finally came to cut them down.

This was so completely different, I didn't know why I'd even thought of the other place.

"Guess we gate-crashed their party," piped up Fang. "They don't look too sore though."

With all those invisible eyes on us I thought maybe we should do something, say hello. That's the vibe we were getting off them.

"This air is something else again. I'm gonna have me some of it."

Danny rose gently from his pensive crouch and began the still clear movements of the snake from his bag of t'ai chi jungle animal people tricks. The air seemed to ripple out from him, batheing the strange forest in invisible touch.

A breeze rustled through the green, and it sounded like the forest was sighing in pleasure.

I'd never felt so peaceful. Who cared where we were when we were in such an unreal place?

Fang was crawling about chasing his spider round the clearing with a robin hopping about in hot pursuit, while I lay back and watched the clouds ride the sky.

**nine**

I suppose the night had to come, and when it did it swooped in like a big black bird. The golden evening sun took a bow, and the dark curtains fell.

We'd collected hearth stones, kindling and dead wood, and after much cursing and stick rubbing got a little fire going that felt good on my naked chest.

"I'm hungry," said Fang.

"I looked round for the hole we came in through. Nothing doing I'm afraid." Danny's face was shining in the firelight.

"S'pose we'd better hike out tomorrow, look for food and clues."

Suddenly we seemed to matter again, feeling pretty keen on getting through this thing.

"Those stars are amazing. I know it's impossible, but I'm beginning to wonder if we haven't slipped into another world altogether."

Our gaze turned upwards with Danny's.

"Hey - look - that's the plough - the stars I mean - and way up there - those four bright ones in a square - that's Pegasus."

Fang didn't share my amazement.

"Ain't that some kind of cat?"

"It's actually a horse, but that's not the point. Those are our stars - and planets - look - there's Mars. We must be somewhere real." I was breathless.

"How about the planetarium man?" said Danny quietly.

He was right of course. It'd be easy enough to program the night sky. We were no further in finding out where we'd wound up.

"Well at least we've got the north star in case we feel like going anywhere."

"Yeah - if they rigged it up right."

"Or if it's the real thing."

We were back to that again.

"I vote we move out in the morning." I poked at the fire.

The others seemed to agree, and there was nothing left to do but get comfortable for the night, taking it in turns keeping watch.

**ten**

I woke up and looked around. It was still dark, but I could make out the vague shape of Daisy peering down at me.

"Hey - how'd you find us?" I was pretty astonished, though still heavy with sleep.

"Well, let's see. Maybe I came up the stairs. Wake up and get it together, Callan - there's something I want to show you."

It was Daisy all right.

"And keep quiet - we don't want to wake the others."

It was still so dark I could hardly see. Someone had let the fire go out. I crept up and felt floorboards under my feet.

"Have I been dreaming?" This was too weird.

Daisy took my hand and led me up stairs that had no reason being there in any reality, up from the attic. I was staggering - it was all too much.

We came out into a dome that was faintly glowing green. All around the stars were looking down out of alien eyes.

Daisy pulled me to her.

"Kiss me," she whispered.

Never had anything remotely like this happened before.

With a wild excitement that I couldn't hope to contain I pulled her so close I didn't know where or who or what I was, and my lips found hers. Our tongues were writhing around each other like long lost snakes, and we were moving through the stars, blazing into the night, shooting like snake-loving comets through portentous worlds.

"My god," I whispered, drifting back, holding her face, unable to say anything else.

And before I could get a hold on things I came over dizzy and felt myself falling away.

**eleven**

A bony toe got me in the back quite sharply and I woke up in a hurry.

"Top o' the morning to you, sonny. Fionnan the Trustworthy at your service."

An ugly wrinkled face came at me in a deep bow. I was back in the forest. Could this get any stranger?

"Who the hell are you?" By this time I'd jumped to my feet, and my manners it seemed had got shot to the same place as my weakening grasp on things.

"Now now you sleepy young pup. Have a little tucker. Here, lads, spare a little fish - take the edge off of this one's growl."

Danny passed me one of the fish frying over the fire. He and Danny were grinning like the cats that got the cream. The Fionnan weirdo was sniggering away, sounding pretty tickled.

"Are these things safe to eat?" I found myself asking. The fish where we lived were crawling in chemicals.

"I'd watch it jumping up and taking a bite out of your nose, that I would." Fionnan's teasing had the others giggling something catching.

"What the hell." I wolfed down the fish. "So what's the story?"

"He showed up with the dawn," said Danny, with a curious eye on our surprise guest.

"Came out of the night with the morning star that I did."

"So you know this land?" I asked. "You know where we are?"

"Oh, I'm just a merchant happening through here," he replied. "But like as not you'll find whatever you're looking for," he shook his little bundle at us, "if you've a mind for trade."

**twelve**

"So hang on a minute - are you saying you've got a map of this place in with your toothbrush and change of underwear?"

Fionnan's eyes sparkled as he rolled out his bundle.

"My, but aren't you green around the gills."

A vast collection of strange looking microchips was spread out at our feet. They were the kind that were biting at the heels of the latest technology, threatening to pretty much revolutionise everything on the market. Tiny bullet-shaped things, I remember first sight we'd got of them on the tube I'd been majorly freaked out. I'd suddenly remembered I'd been dreaming about them in dark hidden dreams for could be years.

I didn't know how this weird dude who looked like a mouldering hick had gotten hold of them, but they weren't much use to us without a tron-box - or even a station, come to think of it - stuck as we were out in that strictly organic paradise.

He picked up a strange looking instrument in there with the chips and started talking to it.

"So then me trusty old partner. What say we show these lads a thing or two?"

With a gleam in his eye he turned to us.

"Well there's some would say you're heroes just for coming here. But then there's others of a different train of thought might mistake you for babes in the wood, and them's the kind with rusted old pots on the backburner looking to be filled. And that you'd cook up a rare and tender treat there's no mistaking."

We were hypnotized by that old madman like rabbits by a snake. He waved that instrument over us, and its strange electronic bleeps had us rooted to the spot.

"Lucky for you you ran into Fionnan the Trustworthy, so it is."

**thirteen**

He was looking us over long hard and slow. It felt like he was looking us over but deep with one eye, while the other followed a bony finger burrowing about amongst the chips.

His fingers finally lighted on a chip - which of course looked no different from any of the others. He rose up from the ground and made his way over to Danny. Our eyes were following his movement, our bodies still stone. I was feeling prime loose inside though. My eyes were hawked on to that crazy scene with the sharpest gaze.

Fionnan was bending over Danny, blowing lightly under his right ear. Then it was like a panel of Danny's skin flipped up, and underneath was this complex flashing of wires and little LED lights. Danny just kept looking straight ahead. Those gnarled yellow fingers somehow pulled a chip out of all that circuitry, and slipped the new one into its place.

All I knew was I had to feel something, a sensation - this was spinning me out - and by the time I slowly began to realise that there were waves of cold water hitting me square in the face, I'd more or less groped my way back from - a big empty space in my memory. A fat black void. I was getting used to this.

It was a little while longer before I'd come round enough to let Fang and Danny know they could stop throwing the water over me.

"Thought we'd lost you there, Cal."

As the forest wavered into view I didn't know whether to feel despondent or ecstatic. So I just stretched out into the sun and let it touch every part of me.

**fourteen**

I lay there, my mind empty. I was too groggy to think, but could just about claw my way down to my feelings. Even they felt like strangers, but I didn't really mind. There was a funny hollowness to me, like I'd forgotten something but couldn't think what, every trace of it having vanished. Or when you wake up, still heavy with dreams, and remember you're in love with someone, and glad to be awake to think about them, but can't quite think who it is.

My poor reasoning had taken a fair bashing and needed a little rest. And if my mind refused to get the rest of me back into gear, I figured I'd just have to lay there and wait until it was ready.

After a while Danny brought me a drink of water.

"Lucky we camped so close to a river, huh? Fionnan left us the skins." The water was presented to me in what appeared to be a rabbit skin.

"Don't worry - it's sound - safe and fresh."

I pulled myself up and drank from my hands as Danny held the skin still. The water was a dream, and it seemed to do the trick.

"What happened back there?" I asked, although I couldn't think of anything Danny might say that wouldn't freak me out, one way or another.

"We're none of us what we were, man," he said gently, as only Danny could. He looked at me closely, sussing out if I was ready for this. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Fang has totally Fanged out. Says he can talk to plants and animals, and they talk back. Even stones. He's trying to explain cricket to a cricket. And sure enough, it's sat there, and seems to be hanging on the rap."

**fifteen**

"Is it something to do with what Fionnan was up to?" I asked.

A blurry voice came at me from nowhere. "The white worms can dance."

"You what?" I rubbed my ears and tried to shake some sense into my head.

"You OK?" asked Danny, looking concerned again. I nodded, feebly.

"Just thought I heard a voice. I guess I'm not straight yet. Weird."

"Fang and I blacked out when he started his parlour tricks - I guess you must have too. Now Fang's turned into Dr Doolittle, and I can see things, strange things I couldn't see before."

"How d'you mean? Like what?"

"Well." Danny searched in his head for the words. "I just seem to know where things are. Not moving things so much, but rivers, hills, houses, even towns and villages a long way from here. I can see them somehow, in my mind."

"Far out." I always trusted what Danny said. The how was way beyond me, but that that's how it was, I totally accepted.

"I haven't had chance to go off and check things are really the way the maps say, what with keeping an eye on you, but there's a cottage a couple of miles away - I've even seen smoke, probably coming from the chimney. If you're up to it we could head over there, check the crack."

I suddenly came over dizzy again.

"Mouse-traps quiver, the creatures shiver." It was the voice again, wavering about like a radio tuning in.

"I'm way gone, man," I said. "I'm definitely hearing voices. Sounds like a warning. Do you think it's real?"

"Chances are, man, chances are. I was wondering if you were going to come out of this with some strange new thing."

**sixteen**

The evening fell in too soon, before we were ready for it, and our spirits fell with it. Even Fang's ever-lasting enthusiasm had worn off.

We miserably collected firewood and down-heartedly poked at the blackening apples in the embers, all the food we had.

We were alone. And we were scared. And we were alone.

I cursed myself for my weakness which had meant we couldn't move out. What was worse, though, was not knowing where it had come from. I wished I'd been beaten up by a thug in a dimlit street, however much it might have hurt. Broken bones you can understand.

Son of a bitch.

Son of a howling bitch.

It hurt too much to think. Thinking was impossible anyway, because what was happening was impossible. It couldn't happen. But it had, and it was still happening. So my mind had pretty much given up, and was enjoying a pleasant nothingness. Not so much ticking over as simply existing, in a world of its own, effortlessly and invisibly monitoring, giving me the space to come round.

I found myself feeling calmer and breathing more easily.

"What a day," I said, and we all slowly started to laugh our own familiar little laughs, and laughed away the scariness of the shadows, and laughed at ourselves, and laughed at each other, and before we knew it we were feeling fine again, taking it all in our stride.

"I'd sure like to meet the machine elf vigilantes of this freaked up place," said Danny.

"Yeah," said Fang. "Let them know there's some new guys in town."

**seventeen **

"Hey - what say we move out into the starlight?" It was good crouched there round the fire, but I was ready for something more. The night was beckoning like a veiled eastern princess.

We piled stones round the fire as silent guards, and stepped out into the night.

It was cool and exciting away from the fire, and the breeze blew my hair around my shoulders. It felt beautiful, as we drifted out towards the river.

"I wonder if the fish are asleep," said Fang. "Wonder if I can see into their dreams."

"How does down river sound?" I suggested.

"Like a trip," breathed Danny, stretching out to keep up with Fang, who was striding ahead in his crazy outfit. It was pretty easy keeping tabs on him, his bells ringing out with every step, sounding like the river's sisters, all singing away.

I was creeping along there, eyes and ears and everything totally wired up, with the widest grin splashed right across my face. This was ace. I could see Danny in front of me, doing high kicks in the air, feeling fine.

There was a rock out in the river, standing just above the snaking water, which was dancing white around it as it swept along its way. A crow was stood there upon it, silently watching us. We all felt it and stopped.

"What's a crow doing out at night?" I thought.

"Hey! Mr Crow!" laughed Fang, stumbling closer to him like a drunk at a party.

The crow rose up on its wings, beat them three times and let out a throaty caw.

"A good night upon you too sir," said Fang, regally, bowing low to the bird.

**eighteen**

As we carried on along the river the moon rose above the dark trees and soon we were moving through the night in a ghostly glow. The river was slowing down and spreading out and trickling through clumps of boggy marshland. We'd reached the delta and imagined we could taste the salt air of the sea ahead.

"I get the feeling there's an island along over there," said Danny. "Wanna go see?"

"Moon-crab to control," said the voice in my head. "No need for refreeze."

"Let's do it," I said.

We had to take our shoes off to wade through the black boggy mud. Our footprints trailed back behind us, filling up with black water and gurgling monstrously as we made our way onwards. Now and again the stony riverbed was hard on our feet, not to mention cold, but I preferred it to the oozing mud between my toes. I was imagining all kinds of things lurking down there in the mud, waiting to shoot out a tentacle. And the voice didn't help much. "Mud bodies breathe," it said in its dull monotone. "Mud bodies are breathing low." Maybe one day it'd talk in a language I could understand.

"Here it is." Danny was leading the way, and sure enough, there was a little island staking its claim on the delta. There was a way old tree poked up out of it. I figured its roots had probably helped the island along some. Its black branches disappeared into the dark.

I was waiting for Fang to do his trick, maybe grimace and kiss it like it was some old granny. Ask it about its bunnions. He wasn't having any of it though. We just stood there, dead quiet, feeling out of time again.

A fish jumped out of the water and sailed by us.

"Follow that fish!" Fang was out of there and heading for the sea like a thing possessed.

**nineteen**

The sun was bursting through the skies by the time we could hear the waves crashing on the shore. Everywhere we could see, as far as we could see, ocean, heaving, a gorgeously monstrous salt water animal, totally out of control, throwing up its thousands of foamy heads just for the sheer hell of it.

Well, before we'd even begun to consider how much joy was brewing up madly there inside of us, we'd ripped our clothes off and were running like dogs along the beach. More than that. Wild cyborg space dogs, like this is what we'd been built for by the greatest minds in the galaxy, who'd been working on the project since the beginning of time. Creatures of sheer crazy joy. The maddest happiness in all the world, as we ran along and dived out into the churning waves, paddling and kicking, moving through the foam with an electric will.

We'd bunched up for a while to splash at each other, whooping and laughing, when Danny's gaze got caught on something on the shore.

"This is probably a mirage - but aren't those boards I see before me?"

He was right. Perched there like exotic-coloured stone-birds with fins were three boards, staring out at the horizon. In a flash we had them in our arms, and they were under us as we pulled our way out past the breakers, out to the entrancing blue, to catch waves for real. Nothing can compare, truly, nothing can compare. We must have hung on to that bliss for hours.

Sometime along the way a figure came out to join us. It was Daisy.

"Hi boys - what did _you_ get for Christmas?"

And we just rode out together and hawked those waves some more.

**twenty**

Hours later we were sat down on a grassy dune in the late afternoon sun, drying out, stokingly thrilled to be together, and just as thrilled to be watching the seagulls soar over the ocean as they held up-draughts on the lookout for fish.

I suppose the question had been begging to be asked, and, unafraid of breaking the spell, Daisy began filling us in.

"So there's no hard feelings about whisking you away here then?"

"What? You mean you had something to do with all this?"

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that." She was grinning her mysterious grin.

"Will we stay here forever?" asked Fang, with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Well I suppose you could do if you wanted, but that's not really the idea."

"How do we get back then?" I asked.

"Don't tell me you prefer the grubby old streets of home," she laughed. "Getting back isn't a problem. You'll get to know where the wormholes are."

"Why are we here?" I carried on.

"Well, I figured it was about time you got to see the bigger picture."

"Hey?"

"Well, this place exists, if you like, in a world outside of the world we grew up in. It got forgotten by people somewhere along the way, and they started behaving like caged animals, not caring about anything but their own little patches. We're trying to turn that around. Show them how precious life is, how there's more than enough for everyone if we share it, how it's most precious when everyone cares about it."

She paused for a while, gauging our reaction.

"It's not all love and peace though boys. There's some grizzly folk need sorting out, and scare tactics is all they understand. So we snatch them out of their dreams and give them a chance to change their minds. You'll love it."

**twenty-one**

So it turns out we're primed up to be the machine elves after all. Along with a fair few others, I might add.

I'm hanging out in the attic at the moment, writing this all up. When I'm done I'll probably trek out someplace, do some fiendish plotting with Daisy's mates, the ones that got thrown over a cliff by hired thugs, and who get to live in the other place full-time. It's not the afterworld, Daisy says - there's a way to go even from there for that - but we've got to get our mothership sorted before we can really start striking out. So that's what we do.

Politicians are my favourites, sucking those dudes out of their dreams, and the big corporate fatcats. There's a fair few of them had to explain away soiled sheets in the morning!

It's a serious temptation to scare seven leagues of sissiness out of them and act like avenging angels, making them clean up their acts out of sheer mortal terror for their little souls, but Daisy says there're better ways. She figures love's the best reason to act, not fear, and that that's where folk's hearts really belong, if they can dare to let them.

The rivers are getting slowly cleaner right enough, but it's a long old job. Chasing about, getting used to our new skills, showing people stuff, mostly in dreams. Helping them to stop and think. It sure is sweet to see how something they can only touch in their imaginations can inspire them on to wonderful things.

Danny's great at finding potential new elves, and those seas are sometimes swarming in kids that've come over, getting a little relief from all the demonstrating and whatever back home.

Maybe see you there sometime


End file.
